West London would be 'devastated’ if Heathrow lost its hub statusAn area the size of Milton Keynes would be “devastated for generations” if a new hub airport is built in the Thames Estuary or at Stansted, Heathrow has warned a government inquiry. Heathrow will publish proposals next month on where to build extra runway capacity. Photo: Getty Images

Making its strongest plea yet for expansion, Heathrow Airport has also warned that passengers would face an additional 30 minutes of journey time, on average, if they had to travel to Stansted or “Boris Island”, the proposed hub airport in the Thames Estuary championed by the Mayor of London. Heathrow claims it would be cheaper and quicker for the taxpayer to build on existing infrastructure in west London, with up to £25bn having already been spent or committed to connect the airport to Britain’s railway network. Re-creating a hub airport elsewhere would have a particularly devastating effect on jobs, according to Heathrow’s latest submission to the government-backed Airports Commission, which is examining where extra runway capacity should be built in the south east of England. It has been widely acknowledged that Heathrow would be forced to close if the Government chose to build a hub elsewhere in London. The 76,600 people directly employed at Heathrow would have to be re-located or would be made redundant, the airport claims. Although thousands of jobs would be created elsewhere, unemployment would potentially double in boroughs close to the airport, such as Hillingdon and Hounslow, and it could take up to 20 years to regenerate those areas, the report says. More than 200 of the UK’s top 300 companies also have their headquarters within a 25-mile radius of Heathrow and would be forced to relocate. Related Articles

“If you close Heathrow, the whole dynamic changes, the whole housing market changes, the employment situation changes,” said John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s development director, adding that the Government would be committing to “devastating a city the size of Milton Keynes out in west London” if it decided to back Boris Johnson’s Thames Estuary project. “It takes at least 20 years to regenerate. That’s a whole generation of people who will have been affected by unemployment.” Today’s report comes across as a thinly-veiled warning to MPs whose constituencies border Heathrow about the impact of blocking further expansion. Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow, will next month publish proposals over where to build extra runway capacity. One plan is to build a third runway south west of the current site, close to the Surrey village of Stanwell Moor. Heathrow has been working with AECOM, the design and planning company that worked on the London 2012 Olympics, on runway proposals. ===============

Well they would say that wouldn't they.!!! what about the people living in Heathrow and surroundiong areas?